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Ask HN: How to learn UI/UX as a data/BE engineer?

39 points thenaturalist | 1 comments | 21 Oct 24 15:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source

Hi HN,

coming from a data/ BE background I feel extremely familiar with reasoning about systems and performance from the cloud-infra to the pipeline stack level. Or I'm super familiar with data visualization.

I feel like falling off a cliff when trying to extrapolate that knowledge to the more customer-facing world.

Despite having some tool ideas in the past, I realized I shy away from going towards the front end because I really lack any conecptual frame of how to think about and subsequently implement UI or UX.

I don't mean that in a nitty-gritty-designer focussed way but more like first-principle understanding:

What makes a good color scheme?

What makes a great wording and why?

What's a good form of presenting information?

I feel like I can recognize good UI/UX when I see it (as is often the case with HN company LPs), but I'd totally fail at distilling check boxes that such good examples tick.

Any pointers to how I can learn about these worlds and develop an understanding of what principles UI/UX should follow?

1. brailsafe ◴[21 Oct 24 20:03 UTC] No.41907951[source]▶
I'd say the most important things to take away from other top comments here are the classic book recommendations, but other than that I'd argue any online sources should be secondary to watching people use systems for a few months based on training that's written or goven by someone else.

I'm a frontend person, started in graphic design, and I've never actually been very good at design, but now I'm doing straight up IT work in an office with visibly stressed people using computer systems I did the hardware setup for, but not the software. These are all basic Windows laptops with pre installed images and cumbersome auth flows. Being in this job has offered me more insight than any article I've ever read, so therefore I think it's better to have some observation or hallway testing experience before looking to refine that with any specific UI recommendations or UX strategies that are rooted in theory.

That's why I love the classic Don Norman book, because it's rooted in watching people use everyday objects that have been designed at a remove from their real world context. Just watch people use your shitty startup webapp UI or corporate hellscape portal, under stress for half an hour